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Saturday, June 21, 2008

The Circus in Vegas... The Original One

The circus is in town... Barnum and Bailey has descended upon the Vegas valley. Madison made up her mind some time ago that she wanted to go. I was on the fence about it despite having bought the tickets, I'm a little torn about patronizing any circus with animals. Now don't mistake me... I'm no PETA psycho and hell yeah, I eat meat. So a hypocrite, I might be. But in my head, tigers and elephants belong in the wild... not the circus. I'm not going to get on some maltreatment tirade, I have no evidence these animals are abused or neglected in any way. For all I know they all have a really fabulous life - in captivity. I think the argument can be made that animals like dogs or domestic horses are really happy being useful, employed, busy. As long as they're treated well, they're happy to work. Despite the fact that the other animals such as those large, beautiful elephants looked well fed and healthy, I couldn't help wondering: Are they happy?

The circus has removed some of the focus from the animals. They're not in the show nearly as much as their human counterparts, and that was nice to see. Madison really enjoyed it, her favorite part was watching the gymnasts do tricks on horses. The horses were so beautiful! We had front row seats so she got to see everything, and clowns would wave to her as they walked by.

Oh, the clowns! I almost forgot to mention the clowns. There were so... many. I'm afraid of clowns, just in case you're new here, so that was a real treat. There was one clown who did a lot of the show, he didn't have very much makeup on and his clown suit wasn't very crazy. Ya know, I actually enjoyed him. I think I've figured it out - it's the face makeup that freaks me out.

The show was a bit too long for a small child (or perhaps just high energy small children like uh, mine). After about an hour and a half she was wayyyy done. Honestly, she likes the Disney shows much more, and I'm sooooo not bummed out about that. The food, drink and souvenir vendors need to offer credit, it's all so expensive. Kinda canceled out the fact that the great seats we had were only $30/person. Overall, it was an entertaining show if you're a big circus fan, as they had all the acts you'd expect and some extra pleasant surprises. I'd give it a B-.

Here's a couple of pictures - as usual there's more at Flickr.



4 comments:

LoraLoo said...

Sheena: Just wanted to clarify I don't think all PETA activists are psycho... ok? I think some just go too far in their passion for protecting animals.

Sheena said...

LOL no I know, and I agree. Some do things I don't understand why anyone would do! :)

Fred said...

My speed was to take the kids to the petting zoo. Much quieter and there were no clowns that looked really weird.

Nik said...

I'm also on the fence when it comes to circus shows. Animals belong in their own natural habitat. However, what to do with the ones who are born in captivity and couldn't possibly survive in the wild? I know not all circus animals are born in captivity, but many are. Not saying, "oh throw them in the circus and mistreat them". Just not sure where the solution is.
It's cool that you both had a good time and that you found one cool clown.